You want to associate the possessive adjective to the possessor (noun). If you have a masculine noun, you use

sein/seine/sein

If the possessor is feminine, you use

ihr/ihre/ihr

What about a neuter possessor? I understand that if this neuter possessor is a masculine or feminine person, you use the corresponding adjective, but what about all of those nouns which do not refer to people, like for example "das Brot"?

2 Answers
2

The possessor’s grammatical gender is neutral, the corresponding possessive pronoun is sein/seine/sein (which is identical to the pronoun for a possessor of male grammatical gender) – no matter what the possessor’s biological gender. However, sometimes the possessive pronoun corresponding to the possessor’s biological gender is used in a constructio ad sensum, especially if the biological gender is known, which is the case for the word Mädchen, for example.

So, according to Wrzlprmft, it would be (it is feasible) "das Mädchen und ihr Pferd", according to Toscho it would be "das Mädchen und sein Pferd" instead. I'm confused. Do you have some reference for this?
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martinaJun 22 '13 at 17:18

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@martina From a grammatical point of view it's correct to go with the masculine gender. In colloquial speech, however, it's very common to neglect this rule if talking about female people, namely "Mädchen" or "Kind". I'd even highly recommend to do so as it is very awkward to refer to a girl as "him".
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Em1Jun 22 '13 at 21:13

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@Em1: I would not say that any neuter forms are missing. They just happen to be identical with the masculine forms. So, I would not perceive that a girl is referred to as him, but as it (which is about the same concerning the awkwardness, hence the neglection of grammar and constructio ad sensum).
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WrzlprmftJun 22 '13 at 22:20